This statement is entirely false. Tests are a form of summative assessment, but effective teachers should be doing some kind of formative assessment throughout the lesson to see if the students are grasping the day’s learning objectives.

District performance assessments, electronic portfolios, oral presentations, and papers that the students write can all be methods of summative assessment. Tests, especially the traditional multiple choice, are easy for the teacher to grade, but they also encourage guessing. They also can be written so there is bias towards certain students, reading and comprehension levels of the students may limit the score on the test and not effectively show what the student really knows.

Formative assessments such as a class poll, administered with a classroom response system or online data collection site allow teachers to find out what the students know in an informal manner. The periodic evaluation of the class comprehension is a must, or a teacher can lose precious time and teachable moments. When I first started teaching, I measured the success of a lesson by the noise level of the class. If the students were quiet, I assumed they were paying attention. However, the first unit exam showed to me that the students weren’t getting all the information. I had to make adjustments and come up with methods to check their understanding. Now that I have several years under my belt, I try to implement many different assessment methods in my classroom. Peer review, question in a hat, fish bowl activities, role-play, and simulations are a few tools I use to check student understanding.

So to say that tests are the only objective assessment of student learning is simply not true. 

This little video helps demonstrate my point.